Fifteen kilometres south of Chiang Mai in Hang Dong district, there is a kilometre of covered street with around five hundred workshops and showrooms on it. If you are buying furniture, ceramics or carved goods to resell, this is the address.
What's there
Teak furniture, hand-carved Buddha images, Chinese altars, Burmese cabinets, lacquerware, ceramics and basketry. Some of it is antique, much of it is reproduction, and the showrooms are generally honest about which is which if you ask directly.
What things cost
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Six-seat dining table | ฿25,000–80,000 |
| Opium bed | ฿15,000–60,000 |
| Desk-size carved Buddha | ฿200–1,500 |
| Temple-scale carving, up to 4 m | ฿50,000+ |
The container economics
This is the part that matters. Nearly every showroom here arranges export, and because they ship constantly the rates are materially better than general freight:
- 20 ft container to Europe or North America: US$1,800–2,400
- 40 ft: US$2,800–3,500
- Door to door in four to eight weeks
Compare that with a general-freight 20 ft from Bangkok to New York at US$5,800–7,750. The Ban Tawai rate exists because the showrooms consolidate and they have done this ten thousand times.
The legal part, which is not optional
Carved Buddha images over about 12 cm require an export licence from the Fine Arts Department, regardless of age, material, or whether the purchase is personal or commercial. Items under about 12 cm generally pass as souvenirs, with a commonly cited limit of five small pieces per person.
Partial Buddha images cannot be exported at all. A Buddha head, a pair of hands, or a fragment mounted as décor is prohibited outright, however it is presented to you.
Genuine antiques require documented proof of origin and ownership. Anything classified as national heritage cannot leave the country.
The application needs a passport copy and photographs, each image needs an individual permit, officials physically inspect, and it takes several working days. Penalties run to confiscation and fines, and the most common outcome of getting it wrong is seizure at the airport.
The showrooms know all of this. Make them handle it in writing, as part of the purchase, before you pay.
How to work the street
Walk the whole kilometre before you buy anything. Prices and quality vary enormously and the first showroom is never the best.
Ask about origin and age directly. A reproduction opium bed is a perfectly good thing to buy and resell; a reproduction sold as an antique is not.
Ask about container consolidation early. If you are not filling a container yourself, some showrooms will consolidate with other buyers — which is how most people actually do this.
Most workshops close around 16:30 even though the street nominally runs to five. Start in the morning.
Also in Hang Dong
Golden Triangle — British colonial, Chinese and European antique furniture with worldwide delivery.
Chiangtung, in Ban Tawai — regional antiques from Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Burma, Vietnam and China. Export documentation matters more here than anywhere else on the street.